Arsenal have had their first bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha turned down, according to multiple reports.
The £40m offer was well below the Eagles’ reported £80m asking price, and the Gunners must now weigh up their next move.
Some supporters on Twitter think Arsenal will continue negotiations with another lowball bid:
£40m + £1 incoming
— Marc Glanville (@glanville_marc) 2 July 2019
Well what about £40m + Mustafi. Surely that’s a deal no one can refuse!
— Subhasis Kastha (@SisahSays) 2 July 2019
Let me guess £40 million plus £1 pound? Have we learned nothing from that Suarez debacle? Stop disrespecting these clubs with pathetic offers and submit an offer they will actually consider before they won’t want to do business with us at all!!!
— Gus (@Gus_R85) 2 July 2019
This is what I thought would happen. I know these kind of things. Zaha needs to like a photo of Ian Wright eating his breakfast
— Eddie Longbridge (@EddieLongbridge) 2 July 2019
Yeah, we saw how that tactic went with Suarez too.
— プドゥル (@puddle_drops) 2 July 2019
Other fans are encouraging the club to include players in the deal to make the deal more attractive:
Get in there arsenal for once. Bid 60m plus mustafi/chambers
— masuut abdullahi (@maska2316) 2 July 2019
£50m + Chambers should be enough
— Craig ??????? (@GoonerBhoys77) 2 July 2019
45m + chambers+ jenko
— Viswanath (@viswanath_vishy) 2 July 2019
£40m plus mkhitaryan I think this is proper offer.
— ?ช้อนโต๊ะชา? (@NutPu_AFC) 2 July 2019
45M + Chambers & Jenkinson lets get it done!
— PRINCE•D ?????? (@PrinceGFID) 2 July 2019
Zaha’s brother has already come out to say that the Ivorian international wants to move to the Emirates and has encouraged Palace to lower their valuation.
The player himself was asked about the transfer speculation after scoring in Ivory Coast’s 4-1 win over Namibia in the African Cup of Nations yesterday. The 26-year-old said he is completely focused on playing for his country:
“I don’t know we’ll see in the future. I have no comment on it the only thing that’s on my mind now is trying to win this cup. I’m fixated on is how far we go in the tournament.”
With Arsenal’s limited transfer budget, the likeliest next course of action would be to offer players in the deal. Fullback Carl Jenkinson is reportedly a Palace target following Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s departure to Manchester United. Including the defender could help talks progress.
